Bette Midler Wants To Keep The Whole World Smiling!

Bette Midler, whose new movie, â€œParental Guidance,â€ is about parenting techniques new and old, says her style was always a mix.

â€œYou shouldnâ€™t be rigid about anything,â€ Midler says. â€œYou have to be flexible and listen to your child. Of course, you need to be firm when itâ€™s time to be firm.â€

In the film (currently in theaters), she and Billy Crystal star as the grandparents who are called in for some babysitting duty when their daughter must go out of town.

â€œIâ€™m not sure all this hovering parents do is a great thing for kids,â€ says Midler, 67. â€œItâ€™s a little crippling. You donâ€™t want kids to be weeds or hothouse flowers. There is a happy medium. â€œI think children should be kept warm, fed and brought up to be human beings.â€

Midler, the parent of grown daughter Sophie, says her style is â€œbasic common sense, which gets the short shift these days. Thatâ€™s too bad.â€

Maybe she could practice on grandchildren? Midler laughs.

â€œI forbid my daughter to get pregnant. Iâ€™m not quite ready for it yet. I canâ€™t even babysit now. I canâ€™t give up â€˜Boardwalk Empireâ€™ to babysit.â€

Midler says she wanted to do the project for one reason: â€œIâ€™ve watched Billy for a long time and itâ€™s always a good time. Heâ€™s one of the greats. When he called, I was delighted. Now I can say I worked with Billy Crystal.â€

Midler is in such good physical shape in the movie that many are asking: What is she doing?

â€œThe main thing is you have to move. You must move. At the same time, you have to accept your body and learn to like your body. Itâ€™s also crucial to stop putting stuff into your body that turns your body against you including acid inducing stuff. Thatâ€™s how people get out of whack.â€

Midler says that ec-friendly projects that clean up New York keep her feeling young. After her two-year residency at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas that ended in 2010, sheâ€™s now planning a new CD.

â€œIâ€™m engaged and I like the world,â€ she says. â€œI know life is not going to go on forever, so my motto is to enjoy it while you got it. I want to make good movies that make people laugh. It think thatâ€™s a generous thing. Itâ€™s something people need in this world. People need to laugh more.â€